Novo Nordisk Shares Plunge As FY25 Outlook Reduced, Despite Higher Q2

(RTTNews) - Shares of Novo Nordisk A/S (NVO) were plunging around 21 percent in Denmark as well as around 20 percent in the pre-market activity on the NYSE, after the Danish drug major on Tuesday lowered its sales and operating profit growth outlook for 2025. This was despite reporting higher profit and sales in its second quarter.

According to the company, the lowered sales outlook for 2025 is driven by lower growth expectations for the second half, related to weak growth expectations for Wegovy in the US obesity market, lower growth expectations for Ozempic in the US GLP-1 diabetes market, as well as lower-than-expected penetration for Wegovy in select IO markets.

For fiscal 2025, Novo Nordisk now expects operating profit growth to be 10 percent to 16 percent and sales growth to be 8 percent to 14 percent. The company previously expected operating profit growth of 16 percent to 24 percent and sales growth of 13 percent to 21 percent.

Sales and operating profit growth reported in Danish kroner is now expected to be 4 and 7 percentage points lower than at CER, respectively, primarily due to depreciation of the USD/DKK exchange rate.

In the second quarter, earnings per share were 5.96 Danish kroner. Operating profit or EBIT grew 40 percent from last year and sales climbed 18 percent, both at constant exchange rates.

In the first half, earnings per share were 12.49 kroner. Operating profit increased by 29 percent and sales grew 18 percent, both at CER. Sales were positively impacted by gross-to-net sales adjustments related to prior years, including an adjustment related to the 340B provision of around 3 billion korner in the second quarter of 2025.

Novo Nordisk plans to release full first-half results on August 6.

On the NYSE, Novo Nordisk shares were trading at $55.10, down 20.1 percent.

In Copenhagen, the shares were at 355.45 kroner, down 21.21 percent.

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